“The Interior Department is bypassing legal concerns over whether the acting directors of the Bureau of Land Management and the National Park Service are qualified to lead the agencies.Instead, Interior Secretary David Bernhardt is authorizing William Perry Pendley and David Vela to ...

“The Fish and Wildlife Service today proposed a new permit system that could effectively streamline the killing of voracious double-crested cormorants. A federal judge vacated the orders in 2016 after concluding FWS did not sufficiently consider the effects of the depredation orders ...

“Scenic overflights at national parks, though pricey, prove popular with tourists. But they have gone largely unregulated despite a 20-year-old law requiring the National Park Service and the Federal Aviation Administration to craft management plans for each of the parks that host ...

“A telecommunications business rebuffed the National Park Service last winter after park officials asked for a smaller, pilot version of the company’s plan to add hundreds of antennas transmitting Wi-Fi signals throughout developed areas in Yellowstone National Park. Ruch, of PEER ...

“Advocacy group Public Employees for Environmental Responsibility said on Monday the National Park Service is reopening national parks without instituting proper social distancing measures. “If state and local governments, and even Disney World, can enforce social distancing and ...

“Yet another Zoom meeting beckoned, pulling University of Colorado scientist Detlev Helmig from his data. On Monday, April 7, 2020 he clicked into a meeting organized by Merritt Turetsky, director of the Institute of Arctic and Alpine Research (INSTAAR) where Helmig worked. She asked ...

“As Green Matters explains, national parks closed their doors during the coronavirus pandemic. They had originally been ordered to waive entry fees, to “[make] it a little easier for the American public to enjoy the outdoors in our incredible National Parks,” but park-goers ...

“It’s long been known that human waste can carry a lot of nasty pathogens that survive passage through the bowels — from bacteria like cholera and fecal coliform to assorted viruses like hepatitis and, over the last few months, the novel coronavirus. Already in cities like Paris ...

“Fifty-seven percent of EPA staff said they were dissatisfied with the agency’s release of scientific information to the public, according to an agency watchdog report posted today. Tim Whitehouse, a former EPA enforcement attorney, called the results “awful” and ...

“Pendley has helped turn BLM into what one high-level employee, who asked to remain anonymous for fear of reprisals, called “a ghost ship” in which “suspicion”, “fear” and “low morale” abound, despite the best efforts of career civil servants to support each other. ...

“Public employees and environmental groups recently filed a lawsuit against the Trump administration’s appointments for two of the nation’s largest public lands management agencies. In addition to the legal and constitutional complaints, advocates also worry about agency ...

“The federal Nuclear Regulatory Commission has proposed a rule “reinterpretation” that would allow commercial landfills to start taking in low level radioactive waste, in lieu of the four currently licensed disposal facilities nationwide. Critics, like Jeff Ruch, West Coast head ...

“Ten conservation groups and a renowned botanist urged the Nevada Department of Conservation and Natural Resources today to immediately review whether the imperiled Tiehm’s buckwheat wildflower should be protected under state law. The department agreed to protect it more than six ...

“On Wednesday, Zion national park in Utah, one of the most popular natural attractions in the US, received its first visitors in more than a month as the Trump administration continued its push to reopen the nation’s outdoors as well as it cities and businesses. Yet the phased ...

“On May 13, Zion National Park is set to begin a phased reopening amid a nationwide push to reopen businesses and public land. Arches and Canyonlands will follow suit at the end of the month on May 29 after two months of closure due to the COVID-19 pandemic. Park officials say they ...

“The Western Watersheds Project and Public Employees for Environmental Responsibility filed a lawsuit in federal court arguing that the Interior secretary violated the Constitution and federal law when he kept David Vela and William Perry Pendley in place as “de facto” leaders of ...

“David Vela, the de facto director of the National Park Service, and William Perry Pendley, the de facto director of the Bureau of Land Management, have been kept in their positions unconstitutionally, according to Public Employees for Environmental Responsibility. In a lawsuit filed ...

“Environmentalists on Monday sued the Interior Department over its temporary appointments of top officials to positions that typically require a Senate confirmation. In a lawsuit filed in federal court in Washington D.C., Public Employees for Environmental Responsibility (PEER) and ...

“Interior Secretary David Bernhardt violated the Constitution and federal laws by reappointing acting directors to public lands agencies, a new federal lawsuit charges. The lawsuit targets Bernhardt’s decision to add “exercising the authority of director” to the ...

“The Federal Aviation Administration and National Park Service have about four months to start preparing a plan to manage aerial tours over Glacier National Park.A handful of businesses offer helicopter and fixed-wing aircraft flights over Glacier’s soaring stone fins and plunging ...